Apparatus for tamping ballast



April 30, 1968 F. PLASSER E AL APPARATUS FOR TAMPING BALLAST 2 SheetsSheet 3.

Filed Oct. 12, 1965 INVENTOHS Fmmz. 1 Lnsse R Toss; THELLRER QQMM M 4Agent A ril30,1968 I RPLASF ER ETAL 3,3

APPARATUS FOR TAMPING BALLAST Filed Oct. 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FILEE INVENTORS- FRANZ 191155614 j'osEF THufi J' Kdm Agent United StatesPatent 3,380,395 APPARATUS FOR TAMPING BALLAST Franz Plasser and JosefThem-er, both of Johannesgasse 3, Vienna, Austria Filed Oct. 12, 1965,Ser. No. 495,123 Claims priority, application Austria, Nov. 30, 1964, A10,077/64; Nov. 30, 1964, A 10,076/64 6 Claims. (Cl. 104-12) ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE A railway track tamping apparatus wherein two or moretamping tool assemblies spaced longitudinally of the apparatus arecoupled together in a group for simultaneous movement of the group ofassemblies in the direction of elongation of the track. 1

The present invention relates to railroad track maintenance, and moreparticularly to improvements in ballast tamping.

Mobile track tampers with or without means for aligning and/or gradingthe track are known. In U.S. Patent No. 2,734,463, it is proposed toprovide a plurality of tamping tool assemblies on such machines. Suchtamping tool assemblies are individually movably mounted on the machineso that their position may be adjusted in the direction of the trackelongation and in respect of the track ties to be tamped. In theoperation of such machines, each tamping tool assembly has its ownoperator and is operated independently as the machine advances along thetrack intermittently from track section to track section, each tracksection corresponding in length to the length of the machine and beingaligned and/or graded, and the several ties in each track section beingtamped while the machine stands at rest to fix the track in the alignedand/ or graded position.

It is the principal object of the present invention to make tracktamping operations more efficient.

Throughout the specification and claims, the term tamping tool assemblydesignates ballast tamping means designed to tamp the ballast underneatha tie. In the well known assembly illustrated herein, each tamping toolassembly includes a pair of tools spaced from each other in thedirection of elongation of the track and opposing tools of each pairbeing arranged for immersion in the ballast adjacent a selected tie andfor reciprocation in the direction of elongation of the track.

According to this invention, a mobile track tamper has a plurality oftamping tool assemblies mounted for movement on the tamper in thedirection of elongation of the track and means is provided for couplingthe assemblies in a group of at least two assemblies for simultaneousmovement of the group of assemblies in said direction.

Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will becomeapparent in the following detailed description of certain preferredembodiments thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawingwherein FIG. 1 is a side view, partly in section, of a track tamperembodying tamping tool assemblies mounted according to the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates, in an enlarged view, the coupling of the twoassemblies shown in FIG. 1

FIG. 3 is a side view, on a smaller scale, of a track tamping andgrading arrangement incorporating another modification of the mountingof the tamping tool assemblies; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the coupling of the three tamping toolassemblies ,of FIG. 3.

Referring now to the drawing and first to FIG. 1, there is shown amobile track tamper including frame I mounted on front axle 2 and rearaxle 3. The front and rear axles of the tamper frame carry wheels 4 onwhich the tamper moves along the track on track rails 5 mounted on ties6. Since the tamping tool arrangement of the present invention isparticularly useful in connection with tampers which comprise means forcorrecting the position of the track and also work as track liners, ithas been illustrated and will be described in this manner. With thistype of machine, much time is saved in the grading and/or lateralalignment of tracks because a relatively long track section including aconsiderable number of ties may be corrected therewith in a singleoperation. This has the added advantage that a relatively long tracksection is moved in each track correction step, which avoidsirregularities occurring at each individually tamped tie.

As shown and as is conventional, 21 mobile track liner of this typeincludes means for raising the track, the illustrated means beinggenerally conventional and comprising a track lifting device consistingof a strong electromagnet 7 designed to contact and hold an adjacentrail 5 when actuated. While the track is raised by the lifting device,the tamper frame is supported on the ballast or road bed by a hydraulicjack means. This is shown to incluude a cylinder 9 mounted on frame 1and carrying piston 10 for vertical reciprocating movement in thecylinder. Piston rod 11 moves with the piston and has mounted on itsouter end a shoe 8 for engagement with the ballast or road bed. Thehydraulic jack means is operated by supplying pressure fluid to therespective chambers of cylinder 9 through conduits 12, 12. The liftingstroke determining the track grade is determined in a known manner byreference line 13 which extends from a forward station (not shown) in atrack section to be grated to a rear station on the tamper behind thefront axle and preferably close to the rear axle. As is also known, thisreference line may be a tensioned wire and is preferably a beam ofradiant energy, such as light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation. Eitherthe receiver or the sender of the radiant energy beam may be positionedat the front and rear stations, and vice versa. The desired position ofthe track is established when a sighting board or stop 14 contacts thereference line and thus causes an interruption of the beam or otherwiseenergizes or de-energizes an electric circuit causing the track liftingto stop.

As shown, the sighting board and the sender (or receiver) 15 areindependently mounted on the tamper by means of rods 30, 30 running onthe rails on rollers 31, 31. The rods are journaled in a support frame32 for vertical movement in response to the grade of the track.

In accordance with known practice, a grade and/orv aligned track sectionis fixed in position by tamping the ties in the corrected track section.Useful tamping tool assemblies for this purpose have been disclosed andclaimed in our U.S. Patent No. 2,876,709, for instance, and assembliesof this type are illustrated herein by way of example.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, two tamping tool assemblies 16 and 17 areillustrated, each being vertically adjustable by being slidablysupported on columns 18, 18. Each assembly comprises pairs of opposingtamping tools 19, 19 which are vibrated by rotation of cam shaft 20while being reciprocated in the direction of elongation of the trackwhen immersed in the ballast to compact the ballast underneath the tie 6positioned between the opposing tools of the assembly. Any suitablehydraulic or other motor 21 may be used for reciprocation of the toolstowards and away from each other.

All of the above-described structure is conventional and is merelyillustrated by way of example, other suitable track lining and/ortamping tool arrangements being equally usable in connection withmounting the tamping tool assemblies in the manner to be now described.

In accordance with the present invention, the tamping tool assembliesare mounted for movement on the tamper in the direction of the trackelongation, for instance by running on guide rails in frame 1. Thecolumns 18 supporting each tamping tool assembly for vertical movementin respect of the ballast are shown to be affixed to respective slidingelements 22 and 23 which are glidably journaled on common guide rod 24extending in the direction of track elongation and supported by frame 1.

As is best shown in FIG. 2, the two tamping tool assemblies are coupledtogether for simultaneous movement of both assemblies in the directionof track elongation by a single moving means. The illustrated movingmeans is a hydraulic motor including a cylinder 25 linked at one end totamper frame 1 and carrying piston 26 for reciprocation therein underthe pressure of pressure fiuid supplied to either cylinder chamberthrough conduits 28. The outer end of piston rod 27 of the hydraulicmotor extends through the other end of cylinder 25 and is linked to acoupling means for the sliding elements 22, 23 and thus for the tampingtool assemblies. In the illustrated embodiment, this coupling means isanother cylinder 29 open at both ends to receive the sliding elementstherein and permitting varying the spacing between the two tamping toolassemblies.

For this purpose, one of the sliding elements (22 in the illustratedembodiment) forms a cylinder 31 at its end received in cylinder 29. Apiston 32 divides the cylinder 31 into two chambers which may besupplied with pressure fluid through respective conduits 30 and 33. Thepiston rod 34, which in the illustrated embodiment is a sleeve glidingon rod 24, is integral with piston 32 and the other sliding element (23in the illustrated embodiment) of the tamping tool assembly 17. Bydelivering pressure fluid to one or the other chamber of cylinder 31,the tamping tool assembly 17 will be moved in relation to tamping toolassembly 16 so as to adjust their relative spacing. The coupling meansconstituted by cylinder 29, on the other hand, is connected to themoving means constituted by a hydraulic motor for simultaneously movingboth tamping tool assemblies in the direction of track elongation.

The modification of the arrangement illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 willnow be described, like reference numerals being used for like parts toavoid duplication of description of those elements described hereinabovein connection with FIGS. 1 and 2. Basically, this modification diifersfrom the first-described one by the mounting of a group of three tampingtool assemblies on a considerably longer machine frame extending over acorrespondingly longer track section being aligned and/or graded in eachintermittently progressing operation.

The entire group of tamping tool assemblies is mounted for simultaneousmovement by a hydraulic motor 25-27 connected to the bearing sleeve 35which carries the columns 18 of the three tamping tool assemblies 16, 17and 16'.

For the purpose of adjusting the mutual spacing between the tamping toolassemblies, the center assembly 17 carries fixed piston rods 39, 39extending in opposite directions towards assemblies 16 and 16,respectively, the pistons 38, 38 of these piston rods forming part ofhydraulic motors carried by assemblies 16 and 16. Each of thesehydraulic motors consists of a cylinder 36 to whose chambers pressurefluid may be selectively supplied through conduits 37 to move a selectedone of the assemblies 16, 16 towards and away from the center assembly17, as seen in FIG. 4.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 3 illustrates the forward and rearstations for the track grading control mounted on separate carriages15', 15' and the length of the machine makes it advantageous to provideadditionally grading systems at the rear of the machine frame, whichprovides a very useful after-control of the grading effected first atthe front end of the machine. These additional grading systems aresimilar to the system used in front and described hereinabove, and theyare indicated in FIG. 3 by numerals 7', 8', 14 and 7", 8" and 14",respectively, the indexed numerals designating like parts. Anarrangement of the illustrated type may operate in either direction asit moves intermittently over the track to grade and/ or align successivetrack sections.

The adjustment of the spacing of the tamping tool assemblies within eachgroup serves not only for the adaptation of the arrangement to differenttie spacings but also makes it possible to adjust the position of eachtamping tool assembly during tamping, if necessary.

One of the outstanding advantages of the hereinabove describedarrangement of the tamping tool assemblies resides in the full andsystematic use of all tamping tools within the track section determinedby the length of the tamper without leaving any of the tools idle. It isobviously of great importance that the time during which the tamperstands still in the intermittently progressing track correctionoperation and when the track is held in the corrected position be fullyused for tamping the ties and thus to fix the track section in thecorrected position. Even a short idling time during each suchstand-still period adds up to considerable lost time during the entireoperation which may cover miles of track. Furthermore, the describedtamping tool assembly arrangement saves operating personnel or makes itpossible to use such personnel more effectively in supervising the trackcorrection proper. Finally, the grouping of the tamping tool assembliesfor simultaneous movement makes it possible more efiiciently to automateoperations and thus constitutes another step in the automation of trackgrading work which has steadily progressed over the last few years.

The tamping tool arrangement of the present invention makes it possibleto tamp a plurality .of ties systematically in a minimum of time in anycorrected track section. Thus, a given track section whose length isdetermined by the length of the track tamper is graded and/ or alignedin a first operation and, while the tamper stands still over thecorrected track section, groups of at least two ties are simultaneouslytamped in a succession of like tamping operations.

As is known, the tamping of ties involves time-consuming steps notconnected directly with the tamping of the ballast, such as stopping andstarting the tamper for and after each grading operation, lowering andraising the tamping tool carrier, etc. Over a considerable number ofsuch individual grading operations effected to grade a succession oftrack sections, the number of these basically wasted steps may begreatly reduced when a number of ties are periodically tamped with theexpenditure of only a single one of these wasted steps. Therefore, thisinvention saves much time because it makes it possible to tampsimultaneously a group of ties to fix the entire corrected track sectionin position while the tamper stands still over this track section.

All the ties in the corrected track section are tamped in groups of twoor more in at least two successive operations to increase the efiiciencyof the tamper to a maximum, various selections of tie groups beingpossible, of course. For instance, adjacent pairs of groups of ties maybe successively tamped, each group being simultaneously tamped by thecoupled tamping tool assemblies. For instance, a group of ties remotefrom a previously tamped track section may be tamped first and the groupof ties between the tamped track section and that first group of tiesmay be tamped subsequently. This has the advantage that the previouslytamped ballast forms a barrier preventing sideways displacement ofballast and thus favoring high-quality tam-ping of the intermediategroup of ties.

Such a tamping sequence may also be effected by first tamping a group ofties which encloses at least one tie that has not been previously tampedand then tamping such untamped ties in a group. Advantageously, groupsof ties are tamped which enclose a single untamped tie and then, whilethe spacing of the tamping tool assemblies in the group remainsunchanged, the untamped ties are then tamped in groups. It is alsopossible, however, to tamp groups of ties enclosing two or more untampedties and these groups of ties may then be simultaneously tamped whilethe mutual spacing of the tamping tool assemblies in the group isdecreased.

While the invention has been described and illustrated in connectionwith certain now preferred embodiments, it will 'be clearly understoodthat many modifications and variations may occur to those skilled in theart, particularly after benefiting from the present teaching, withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of this invention, as defined in theappended claims.

What we claim is:

1. A mobile track tamper comprising a plurality of tamping toolassemblies mounted on the tamper in spaced relation in the direction ofelongation of the track for movement in said direction, and meanscoupling the assemblies in a group of at least two assemblies for simul-6 taneous movement of the group of assemblies in said direction.

2. The mobile track tamper of claim 1, further comprising means forvarying the spacing .of the tamping tool assemblies in said group.

3. The mobile track tamper of claim 1, further =c0mprising means forsimultaneously moving the coupled tamping tool assemblies in saiddirection.

4. The mobile track tamper of claim 1, further comprising means forcorrecting the position .of the track.

5. The mobile track tamper of claim 4, wherein said track positioncorrecting means includes means for grading the track.

6. The mobile track tamper of claim 5, wherein said track grading meansincludes a track grading mechanism at the front end of the tamper andanother track grading mechanism at the rear end of the tamper.

FOREIGN PATENTS 205,532 10/1959 Austria.

ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner. R. A. BERTSCH, Assistant Examiner.

